TALL blog

Our new courses for Michealmas 2015 are Ancient Egypt: An Introduction and Public Policy Economics two excellent additions to our portfolio.

The first is possibly our most eagerly awaited Archaeology course ever, we have been wanting to offer a course on Ancient Egypt for a very long time, but it has taken us a while to bring it together (we blame Egyptologists preferring digs to course development).  This course is an introduction to the rich and vibrant civilization of ancient Egypt, from royal pyramids, court artisans and powerful pharaohs, to grandiose temples, mysterious gods and foreign invasions.    Full of glorious resources and great activities it is going to make a lot of students happy.

Our Public policy economics course has been written by Diana Coyle who is really great at communicating complex ideas clearly.  This course is for anyone interested in politics and the economy and provides a fantastic insight into the economic thinking that shapes why governments make the decisions they do. With claims and counter-claims dominating the news this course will give you the knowledge you need to evaluate these and work out who you really believe.

Very different topics but equally rewarding learning experiences.

Image:Work found at https://www.flickr.com/photos/53904184@N04/4986069392 / CC BY 2.0

Work found at https://flic.kr/p/dj3jzy /CC BY-ND 2.0

It is that time of the term where I blog about our new courses and this term I am particularly excited to share our two new courses for Trinity:  The First Civilization: Mesopotamia 3500-2000 BC  and  People and Society: A Global Perspective.  From the civilization that saw the first societies, to ways of understanding society and how it shapes our world today, these courses help you engage with the world in very different ways.  Both will stimulate your thinking and each case they are particularly timely with current news events.

Our Mesopotamia course was a revelation to me, as a normal British school child I knew a bit about Egypt, but I would now argue we should be all be studying Mesopotamia which is at last as fascinating and even more revelatory in terms of the amazing artifacts produced by civilizations so ancient the dates start to seem fanciful.  As stories are emerging of ancient sites being destroyed in the Middle East  this course will help you understand just how tragic this is.

People and Society is a very different course, but again tied to current events, if you live in the UK, by the election.  This course examines many of the sociological assumptions that inform political discourse and will give you new ways to think about the debate, as well as helping you situate it in a global context.

Both these courses were in subjects I did not think I had much of an interest in, but as a result of developing I now know I do – study them and you may find the same thing.

Once again it is time for my termly new courses post and this time I am very excited about our new offerings:  Animal Behaviour: An Introduction, Advanced Creative Writing,  Inequality and Labour Markets, Who are the Celts?.

A creative Celtic animal contemplating inequality?

Creative writing has long been one of our most popular portfolios and so it is fitting that it now sees out first level 5 online course, Advanced Creative Writing. Essentially this is the next level on from the rest of our online courses, equivalent to the second year of an undergraduate degree rather than the first year.  This course really does build on what has gone before, challenging students to take their writing to the next level and start to think about what might be really involved in getting published.

In contrast Animal Behaviour: An Introduction, is the first online course we have developed in biological sciences, but it won’t be our last.  I am really pleased with this course, it mixes the hard science with a chance to look at and analyse the behaviour of animals around you (or online), and put theory into practice. I am not usually the sort of person to watch nature documentaries but even I found it fascinating, if you love animals I can only imagine you will love it.  Lastly I have already been able to impress friends with facts I learnt in the course which has to be a good sign.

Who are the Celts? is a new course from Wendy Morrison who wrote out ever popular Archaeology in Practice.  Like that course, this is another great addition to our Archaeology portfolio filled with fabulous images, resources, activities and more.  I have learnt that the real Celts are not necessarily who you think they are, and this course will give you a chance to find out what this actually means.

Lastly our economics portfolio is definitely enhanced by Inequality and Labour Markets, a perennial economics topic which feels especially relevant at the moment.  If you are interested in the issues around Inequality, this course will allow you to dig deeper than the news and discover the underlying theory that has led to current practice and some of the latest academic research on whether this is a good or bad thing.

Essentially all four of these are courses that would enhance anyone’s life to study for 10 weeks, just pick the one that really interests you, and if none of these quite whet your appetite do look at everything else available at on the Continuing education website.

Image: Work found at https://flic.kr/p/7hbtwm/  CC BY 2.0

This term see’s the most new courses we have launched for a long time with six new courses to stimulate and engage all lifelong learners out there. These range across the disciplines with new chances for study in a wide range of areas.

Economics

We are launching two new courses in  our economics portfolio, covering the area of political economy as much as pure economics.  These are the courses to take if you love watching Newsnight, follow politics religiously and want to understand the academic take on what is happening in the world today. International Labour Migration: Economics, Politics and Ethics, will help you justify your opinion on immigration with the latest research, while Social Policy and Welfare States in the 21st Century will help you understand how the modern welfare state works and what lies behind many of the choices made by governments today.

Philosophy

This portfolio sees the launch of the long awaited Critical Reasoning: A romp through the foothills of logic, written by Marianne Talbot our Director of studies in Philosophy who knows all about reasoning and romping!  This is a chance to find out if your arguments really work and test them against your fellow students.

History to Archaeology and Maths

Our historical courses are expanding in all directions this term, The Wars of The Roses: Power, Politics and Personalities, is our first medieval course (although we have lots from this era in our Literature portfolio….). If the discovery of the body of Richard III in a Leicester car park has whetted your interest in this topic, now is your chance to find out more.

We are now almost joining up at the other end of the medieval era with our latest archaeology course The Fall of Rome.  Written by Steve Kershaw who also wrote our extremely popular Greek Mythology course, this is your chance to find out if Gibbon was right.

Finally we are also taking a historical perspective on our latest Maths course The Great Mathematicians, which traces the history of maths from ancient times to the present day, through following the great mathematicians who pushed it forward.

The team is TALL has really enjoyed developing all of these courses and now we hope you will like studying them just as much.

Image Work found at https://flic.kr/p/mCGdBb (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/)

This term we are launch two great courses, Psychology: an introduction and Western Architecture: The Modern Era.

Psychology is probably the most requested new online course topic for the Department so we are really excited to have our first course in this subject area.  This is a really great introduction if you know nothing about the subject, but also lets you explore topics in more depth if you are really interested.  Any course with units titled, “Why do we conform and whom do we obey?” and “Why do fools fall in love?” has to be worth some of your time.

However if psychology is not your thing I would also recommend our new course in Modern Architecture. This amazingly visual course lets you explore all the architects you would expect from Le Cobusier, Mies van der Rohe and Frank Lloyd Wright to those you may not have heard of such as Philip Johnson and Rober Venturi.  I promise after studying this you will never look at the (modern) buildings around you in quite the same way again.

So if you want to step into spring with new opinions on everything from Brutalism to theories of reward and punishment you could not come to a better place.

La station art nouveau de la porte Dauphine (Hector Guimard)

This term I am really excited to let you know about two of our most gorgeous new courses ever, Art Nouveau Across Europe and The Impressionists: Painting Modern Life, launching in Hillary term (January)  2014.  Both these courses are full of wonderful images and a chance to immerse yourself in the late nineteenth/early twentieth century world from which they emerged. In each case you are given a chance to explore the topic in depth, engaging with contemporary sources as well as more recent  academic debate. Find out everything you ever wanted to know about  Gaudi, Horta, Charles Rennie Mackintosh and come to your own conclusion on the strange death of Art Nouveau.  Alternatively explore the world of Monet, Manet, Degas, Renoir, Cassat from the origins of the Impressionism  to its evolution with Gaugin and Van Gogh. In either case you  will be stimulated intellectually (as in all our courses) and  especially visually.

Impressionism at the Art Institute of Chicago: Monet

Image credits:La station art nouveau de la porte Dauphine (Hector Guimard) / http://creativecommons.org/licenses /by/2.0/ and Impressionism at the Art Institute of Chicago / http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/

This Michaelmas term (as well as offering well over 60 courses you have had a chance to study already) we launch two totally new courses, Social Anthropology: an introduction and Introduction to World Religions.

Boys taking part in a ritual to mark the transition to manhood, Malawi
Licensed by Steve Evans under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic licence

The titles of the units in the social anthropology course alone are enough to make anyone with an enquiring mind consider studying it.  Among them – “Kinship: given or made?” “Witchcraft: is a belief in science any more rational than a belief in witches?” “Gift exchange: is there such a thing as a free gift?” “Ethnicity and globalisation: understanding hyperdiversity”.  I am not sure you will ever see the world in the same way again once you have been exposed to thinking anthropologically.

Our world religions course introduces you to a subject where even the term “world religions” can be controversial. Looking at the major faiths of both the east and west it will help you understand both insider and outsider perspectives and the ways that religions have adapted and changed to meet the challenges of the modern world.

Both courses have some great resources and activities which will really stimulate you, challenging you to work out what you believe and why – if from very different perspectives!

Image :student laptop / zen Sutherland / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Next term we are launching  five new courses in the online short course programme: Climate Change: Science, Leadership and Action, The Making of Modern Britain, History of Economic Thought, Civil War and Revolution: Britain Divided, 1640-60, and Middle English Literature.

Our history portfolio is expanding rapidly, with The Making of Modern Britain covering topics from Adam Smith and the enlightenment to CND marches.  This course gives you a chance to explore many of the historical trends that have shaped our modern world, but also provides a grounding in the basic historical skills that you need to seriously study history.   You also get to engage with Adam Smith in our new course on the History of Economic Thought, but I am most excited about the fact it also covers Indian and Chinese traditions for a more global perspective.

Back to history, all I need to tell you about our Civil War and Revolution: Britain Divided, 1640-60, course is that it has a unit titled “The return of the sword” and “A time of shaking forum”,  surely you want to know more now.  Middle English Literature. is the natural successor to our ever popular Ancestral Voices: The Earliest English Literature course and is also written by the amazing Sandie Byrne, one of our most popular course authors and tutors, if you have ever felt you should understand Chaucer and the other literature of this time better, this course is for you. Lastly our new course Climate Change: Science, Leadership and Action, not only teaches you more about climate change, but also helps you explore your leadership potential.

Currently there are still places available on all of these courses, but they are filling up fast.  Between them they offer something for all interests – or if you really think you want more choice visit our full online course catalogue, with 60 courses starting in January there really is plenty to choose from.

…is my best attempt to link our four new online courses this term, we are nothing if not diverse.

We are the in the middle of our course launch period once again, but there there still places in loads of fabulous online courses if you are interested.  In particular I should mention our four new courses for this term, The First World War in Perspective, Archaeology in Practice, Social Entrepreneurship, and Introducing Mapping, Spatial Data & GIS.

The former two are from our mainstream humanities strand.  Archaeology in Practice fills  the gap in our Archaeology programme for an introduction to the subject, so is the place to start if you have not studied archaeology before.  The First World War in Perspective course is monumental  – and provides the best overview to the subject you could imagine in 10 weeks.  In particular this is a visually stunning course with loads of great resources and images.  I also think our author has done a great job of showing the bigger picture of the war, rather than a UK centric view.

Our GIS and Social entrepreneurship courses come from our growing range of more applied subjects.  Introducing Mapping, Spatial Data & GIS is a great hands on introduction to what GIS can do accross a swathe of subjects, with guidance on using freely available tools to complete your own real life project – it has given me loads of ideas I would love to follow up.  Lastly our Social Entrepreneurship course introduces this fascinating topic and helps you explore how you could become more engaged in this area.

As usual all are taught by our expert tutors and put you in a global classroom with students from everywhere, giving you a perspective  on the subject you could never get in a locally based course. So investigate if you are interested in any of these or anything else from our portfolio.

Image: Remembrance Day 2009 – The Forgotten Front 1918 / Cross Duck / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Cartoon of a Victorian politician - who was surely interested in microeconomics.

For once thought I would seize the chance to tell you about our new courses when there is still time to enroll on them.  New for Trinity term we have Investigating the Victorians, Politics: an introduction and Microeconomics: an introduction.

Investigating the Victorians is a course bursting with amazing resources about Victorian lives and great activities to help you explore them.  Many of the themes this course explores are surprisingly relevant to the world today and you also get to do a quiz which has the possible choices….

…..Presence of dunghills, Filth, Slaughter houses, Dampness, Decomposing refuse, Open sewers and drains, Accumulation of refuse, Homes with no flooring, Inadequate diet and clothing, Overcrowding….

Remember modern life is not so bad.

The next two courses are possibly even better for holding forth on the state of the world today – justify your opinions with political and economic theory and impress your friends.

Microeconomics follows on where our Macroeconomics course left off, looking at economics on the smaller scale of firms and individuals, and helping you understand  what economic theory has to say about where we are now.

Our new Politics course is fabulously clear and straight forward entry into a huge topic, covering a vast amount of ground from ancient Greece via Machiavelli and J.S. MILL to the Japanese Tsunami and the War in Iraq.

So if you fancy an bit of intellectual stimulation in the spring check these out, or any of the other 50 courses we have to choose from.

Image:14 Pluto – Politician / Carl Guderian / http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/